life in a Universe

it was a mid summer night, on a rare occasion that i had the opportunity to spend sometime with my grandfather one evening.
"how big is the universe?" i asked.
didn't get a response for a long time, then he finally said. "...that's a difficult question..." seems like that was also the first time that a question of this kind has crossed his minds.

many years passed, and learned that there's the discovery of atom, then electron, neutrons, followed by quarks and leptons, and they even say that there is a possibility of substructure within these tiny particles.

if we can't determine how small the world can reach, how could we determine how big the universe is...

my father, when i was still in my teens, has once asked me a seemingly innocent question, " if i give you a piece of paper, and cut it in half, then pick up one half and repeat the same steps, how small will that piece of paper eventually become?"

i still have no answer to that question, and probably never will. but little did i know then that this question has opened my mind in how to see things...